What I loved the most about Palma was that it felt very cosmopolitan – the romantic of Paris, or even Florence was there when surrounded by its pretty well-maintained buildings and little cafes scattered around. The very heart of the old town looks very Arab with narrow and overhanging cobble streets, which points to the colourful history of occupation of this island.

If you are driving into Palma, I’d recommend parking underground on the sea-front, right by the Cathedral and L’Almudaina Palace so it’s fast and easy to access most sights in the centre (and it’s not expensive either). The royal palace and the cathedral and right next to each other, and after touring these two places it is easy to take one of those romantic horse-drawn carriages for a tour of the pretty town centre.

Prior visiting the town centre it’s worth stopping by at Bellver Castle, which is some 3km of the centre. it is positioned on top of the highest hill and can be easily spotted from the centre of Palma also. This castle is gothic-styled and one of the few circular castles in Europe.

It has been gracefully restored for most parts and few of the rooms are accessible, but there aren’t that many artifacts on display here. The key focus is on the architecture and additional attraction is provided by the beautiful views sweeping over the port and the city of Palma.

The building of gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral La Seu on top of an arab mosque started in 1229, but didn’t finish until almost 300 years later. It’s huge in size: 55 metres long with a nave of 44m! It is filled with beautiful details such as huge stained-glass windows and even Antoni Gaudi participated in the design of the re-fit some hundred years ago. This in one of the most famous gothic churches in Europe and definitely worth a visit (despite the 7 Euro price tag).

The royal palace of Almudaina is the Alcázar of Palma and originally built as an Arabian Fort, and later in the 14th century turned into a Royal residence (and parts are still used for official royal functions sometimes, although he royal summerhouse is the Royal Palace of Marivent nearby). There are interesting details inside the palace, such as several rooms, which used to be of different temperatures and formed ancient Arab baths.

Enjoying Sangria and tapas on Placa Espanya (main town square) while watching street artists to perform

Just walking around, admiring the pretty buildings and narrow cobbled streets, and maybe stopping on the way in the old Banys Arabs/ Arab baths

We experienced several breathtaking and colourful sunsets in Mallorca, and these yellow-orange burning stripes on the sky were a perfect background for old windmills (which are plenty in Palma still) and created a grand finale for our day in Palma! If you happen to visit Palma I would love to hear how you liked it and what your top attractions were there!

Below you can see more scenery from Mallorca – and you can find all Mallorca photos from my Instagram account @Houseofanais:

Do you have a great Instagram travel story to share? Read the linky rules below and join us this week. You can also join as a host and get the linky code to your site here: {The Code Page}.

If you are not a blogger, but have an Instagram account you can tag your lovely travel moments with #IGTravelThursday hashtag. No blog, no Instagram – you can still join in the fun by reading our linked IG travel stories – and by giving us some feedback love!

Because I have yet to visit Europe, it’s always dreamy to me. Reading posts about romantic carriage rides always put me in the mood to hop on a plane and get there. So much history to take in. The sunsets there look remnant of our Vegas sunsets. Warming to the eye.

Funny you said that about Paris b/c when I saw the first photo with the outdoor cafe, I thought Paris in the Summer! I would really love to have some tapas and Sangria right about now. Along with sunshine!